Minimally invasive surgery has improved patient care by decreasing pain, shortening hospital stays, offering a faster recovery time and much smaller scars. In fact, the surgical procedure can be much shorter than standard procedures and offers less chance of infection and other associated problems. In addition, the advent of robotic assisted surgery has further enhanced these benefits in certain specific operations. As such, laparoscopic procedures, whether done manually by a surgeon or with the assistance of robotics, are improving patient care.
During laparoscopic procedures for abdominal surgeries, the surgeon makes a series of three to five small, dime-sized incisions in the patient's abdomen. Carbon dioxide gas is used to inflate the abdomen and create a working space between the internal organs and the skin. A rigid camera, or scope, is placed in one of the incisions, providing the surgeon with a magnified view of the patient's internal organs on a television monitor in the operating room. In some procedures, such as laparoscopic colon procedures, a slightly larger incision may be needed to remove the colon specimen.
Thus, the procedure requires body access devices, which are utilized to introduce visualization equipment and operative instruments rather than a standard incision to access a specific organ system.
In the past, devices with multiple parallel channels were not able to achieve sufficient triangulation for many operation to be performed. Unfortunately, the narrow parallel channels in these devices limited the field of view and reduced depth perception, and thus, did not met the broad needs of the surgical community.